Systems and method of slot assignment to traffic stream

ABSTRACT

A first wireless communication device may send, to a second wireless communication device, a request message including a traffic stream identifier (TID) and a first value, the first value indicating that a traffic stream between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device and corresponding to the TID is latency sensitive. The first wireless communication device may receive, from the second wireless communication device responsive to the request message, a response message including a second value indicating whether the corresponding traffic stream between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device is latency sensitive, compare the second value and the first value, determine, based on a result of the comparing, that the request message has been accepted, and communicate, with the second wireless communication device responsive to the determining, the corresponding traffic stream as a prioritized traffic stream instead of a regular traffic stream.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/371,931, filed Jul. 9, 2021, which claims the benefit of and priorityto U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/069,547, filed Aug. 24,2020. The entire disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/371,931 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/069,547 areincorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure is generally related to communications, includingbut not limited systems and methods of slot assignment to trafficstream.

BACKGROUND

Artificial reality such as a virtual reality (VR), an augmented reality(AR), or a mixed reality (MR) provides immersive experience to a user.In one example, a user wearing a head wearable display (HWD) can turnthe user's head, and an image of a virtual object corresponding to alocation of the HWD and a gaze direction of the user can be displayed onthe HWD to allow the user to feel as if the user is moving within aspace of artificial reality (e.g., a VR space, an AR space, or a MRspace). An image of a virtual object may be generated by a consolecommunicatively coupled to the HWD. In some embodiments, the console mayhave access to a network.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein are systems and methods related to slot assignment totraffic streams. Resources and/or time slots can be adaptively allocatedfor communication of traffic based on utilization and/or priorities ofchannel access. The communication of traffic associated with latencysensitive applications and/or latency sensitive links may be prioritizedover regular traffic. The prioritization of latency sensitive traffic(or traffic streams) can improve the quality of service of latencysensitive applications and/or traffic.

Some embodiments are related to a method of sending, by a first wirelesscommunication device to a second wireless communication device, arequest message comprising a latency marker having a requested valueindicating that a corresponding traffic stream between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice is latency sensitive; and receiving, by the first wirelesscommunication device from the second wireless communication deviceresponsive to the request message, a response message comprising aresponse latency marker with a response value for the correspondingtraffic stream; and communicating, by the first wireless communicationdevice with the second wireless communication device, the correspondingtraffic stream as a prioritized traffic stream instead of a regulartraffic stream, when the response value is same as the requested value.

In some embodiments, the request message includes a traffic streamidentifier (TID) of the corresponding traffic stream, and the requestedvalue is configured for the TID of the corresponding traffic stream. Incertain embodiments, the corresponding traffic stream has a specificdirection (e.g., uplink or downlink) between the first wirelesscommunication device and the second wireless communication device, andthe requested value is configured for the specific direction. In oneexample, the latency marker may have a first requested value indicatingwhether a first traffic stream of a first direction (e.g., uplink)between the first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device is latency sensitive, and a second requested valueindicating whether a second traffic stream of a second direction (e.g.,downlink) between the first wireless communication device and the secondwireless communication device is latency sensitive.

In some embodiments, the request message is used to establish a blockacknowledgement (BA) session, and the latency marker is 1 bit in size.The latency marker may include a plurality of requested values eachindicating whether a corresponding traffic stream between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice is latency sensitive. The response latency marker may include aplurality of response values each responsive to a corresponding one ofthe plurality of requested values. In some embodiments, the latencymarker comprises a bitmap, each bit of the bitmap indicating whether acorresponding traffic stream between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device is latencysensitive. In some implementations, the latency marker comprises a firstbitmap indicating whether each of a first plurality of traffic streamswith a first direction between the first wireless communication deviceand the second wireless communication device is latency sensitive, and asecond bitmap indicating whether each of a second plurality of trafficstreams with a second direction between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device is latencysensitive. In some embodiments, at least one of the latency marker orthe response latency marker is configured in or as an informationelement. The latency marker may be carried in a field of the requestmessage, or the response latency marker may be carried in a field of theresponse message.

Other embodiments are related to a first wireless communication device,comprising: a transceiver comprising at least one processor, configuredto: send to a second wireless communication device a request messagecomprising a latency marker having a requested value indicating that acorresponding traffic stream between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device is latencysensitive; and receive, from the second wireless communication deviceresponsive to the request message, a response message comprising aresponse latency marker with a response value for the correspondingtraffic stream; and communicate, with the second wireless communicationdevice, the corresponding traffic stream as a prioritized traffic streaminstead of a regular traffic stream, when the response value is same asthe requested value.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. Likereference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate likeelements. For purposes of clarity, not every component can be labeled inevery drawing.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system environment including an artificialreality system, according to an example implementation of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a head wearable display, according to an exampleimplementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computing environment according to anexample implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an interaction/flow diagram showing a process of communicatingslot assignment of at least one traffic stream between two devices,according to an example implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is an example scheduling diagram based on information extractedfrom a latency marker (L-marker), according to an example implementationof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before turning to the figures, which illustrate certain embodiments indetail, it should be understood that the present disclosure is notlimited to the details or methodology set forth in the description orillustrated in the figures. It should also be understood that theterminology used herein is for the purpose of description only andshould not be regarded as limiting.

Streams of traffic may be characterized by different types of traffic.For instance, an application may be characterized by latency sensitivetraffic (e.g., video/voice (VI/VO), real time interactive applications,and the like) or regular traffic (e.g., best effort/backgroundapplications (BE/BK)). Latency sensitive traffic may be identifiable, inpart, based on its bursty nature (e.g., periodic bursts of traffic), insome embodiments. For instance, video display traffic may be driven by arefresh rate of 60 Hz, 72 Hz, 90 Hz, or 120 Hz. An application and/ordevice may have combinations of traffic types (e.g., latency sensitivetraffic and non latency sensitive traffic). Further, each stream oftraffic for the application and/or device may be more or lessspontaneous and/or aperiodic as compared to the other streams of trafficfor the application and/or device. Accordingly, traffic may varyaccording to applications and/or channel rate dynamics.

In some implementations, devices may communicate using allocated channeltransmission bandwidth such that only admitted (e.g., registered orassigned) devices have access to the channel. In other implementations,devices may communicate using broadcast transmissions. Each frame usedin communication may include subframes or slots, which further includesdata symbols.

Devices configured to support multi-link operation (MLO) may be capableof supporting flexible traffic steering and load balancing. In someimplementations, devices may load balance different links bydifferentiating the services of the links. For example, a device (suchas an access point (AP)) may direct a station (STA) carrying latencysensitive traffic to operate over one link or a subset of links.

Assigning slots to traffic streams improves the quality of service forlatency sensitive applications by dedicating and allocating slots inlinks to latency sensitive traffic. A device (AP, soft AP, console) mayconfigure latency sensitive slots such that the latency sensitive slotsare prioritized over regular slots. A device (such as a STA or AP) mayclassify/identify each of the traffic streams according tosource/destination address/identification and/or on a per trafficidentifier (TID) basis using an attribute (e.g., an L-marker). A TID maycomprise an identifier to identify a traffic stream. Traffic identifiedas latency sensitive (e.g., having a defined latency requirement, forinstance to be within a specific latency range or below a definedlatency threshold) may be communicated using a latency sensitive slot,for example.

In some applications, latency sensitive traffic that is not prioritizedmay degrade a user experience. For example, in an AR context, latencybetween a movement of a user wearing an AR device and an imagecorresponding to the user movement and displayed to the user using theAR device may cause judder, resulting in motion sickness.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example artificial reality systemenvironment 100 in which a console 110 operates. FIG. 1 provides anexample environment in which devices may communicate traffic streamswith different latency sensitivities/requirements. In some embodiments,the artificial reality system environment 100 includes a HWD 150 worn bya user, and a console 110 providing content of artificial reality to theHWD 150. A head wearable display (HWD) may be referred to as, include,or be part of a head mounted display (HMD), head mounted device (HMD),head wearable device (HWD), head worn display (HWD) or head worn device(HWD). In one aspect, the HWD 150 may include various sensors to detecta location, an orientation, and/or a gaze direction of the user wearingthe HWD 150, and provide the detected location, orientation and/or gazedirection to the console 110 through a wired or wireless connection. TheHWD 150 may also identify objects (e.g., body, hand face). The console110 may determine a view within the space of the artificial realitycorresponding to the detected location, orientation and/or the gazedirection, and generate an image depicting the determined view. Theconsole 110 may also receive one or more user inputs and modify theimage according to the user inputs. The console 110 may provide theimage to the HWD 150 for rendering. The image of the space of theartificial reality corresponding to the user's view can be presented tothe user. In some embodiments, the artificial reality system environment100 includes more, fewer, or different components than shown in FIG. 1 .In some embodiments, functionality of one or more components of theartificial reality system environment 100 can be distributed among thecomponents in a different manner than is described here. For example,some of the functionality of the console 110 may be performed by the HWD150, and/or some of the functionality of the HWD 150 may be performed bythe console 110.

In some embodiments, the HWD 150 is an electronic component that can beworn by a user and can present or provide an artificial realityexperience to the user. The HWD 150 may render one or more images,video, audio, or some combination thereof to provide the artificialreality experience to the user. In some embodiments, audio is presentedvia an external device (e.g., speakers and/or headphones) that receivesaudio information from the HWD 150, the console 110, or both, andpresents audio based on the audio information. In some embodiments, theHWD 150 includes sensors 155, eye trackers 160, a communicationinterface 165, an image renderer 170, an electronic display 175, a lens180, and a compensator 185. These components may operate together todetect a location of the HWD 150 and/or a gaze direction of the userwearing the HWD 150, and render an image of a view within the artificialreality corresponding to the detected location of the HWD 150 and/or thegaze direction of the user. In other embodiments, the HWD 150 includesmore, fewer, or different components than shown in FIG. 1 .

In some embodiments, the sensors 155 include electronic components or acombination of electronic components and software components that detecta location and/or an orientation of the HWD 150. Examples of sensors 155can include: one or more imaging sensors, one or more accelerometers,one or more gyroscopes, one or more magnetometers, or another suitabletype of sensor that detects motion and/or location. For example, one ormore accelerometers can measure translational movement (e.g.,forward/back, up/down, left/right) and one or more gyroscopes canmeasure rotational movement (e.g., pitch, yaw, roll). In someembodiments, the sensors 155 detect the translational movement and/orthe rotational movement, and determine an orientation and location ofthe HWD 150. In one aspect, the sensors 155 can detect the translationalmovement and/or the rotational movement with respect to a previousorientation and location of the HWD 150, and determine a new orientationand/or location of the HWD 150 by accumulating or integrating thedetected translational movement and/or the rotational movement. Assumingfor an example that the HWD 150 is oriented in a direction 25 degreesfrom a reference direction, in response to detecting that the HWD 150has rotated 20 degrees, the sensors 155 may determine that the HWD 150now faces or is oriented in a direction 45 degrees from the referencedirection. Assuming for another example that the HWD 150 was located twofeet away from a reference point in a first direction, in response todetecting that the HWD 150 has moved three feet in a second direction,the sensors 155 may determine that the HWD 150 is now located at avector multiplication of the two feet in the first direction and thethree feet in the second direction.

In some embodiments, the eye trackers 160 include electronic componentsor a combination of electronic components and software components thatdetermine a gaze direction of the user of the HWD 150. In someembodiments, the HWD 150, the console 110 or a combination mayincorporate the gaze direction of the user of the HWD 150 to generateimage data for artificial reality. In some embodiments, the eye trackers160 include two eye trackers, where each eye tracker 160 captures animage of a corresponding eye and determines a gaze direction of the eye.In one example, the eye tracker 160 determines an angular rotation ofthe eye, a translation of the eye, a change in the torsion of the eye,and/or a change in shape of the eye, according to the captured image ofthe eye, and determines the relative gaze direction with respect to theHWD 150, according to the determined angular rotation, translation andthe change in the torsion of the eye. In one approach, the eye tracker160 may shine or project a predetermined reference or structured patternon a portion of the eye, and capture an image of the eye to analyze thepattern projected on the portion of the eye to determine a relative gazedirection of the eye with respect to the HWD 150. In some embodiments,the eye trackers 160 incorporate the orientation of the HWD 150 and therelative gaze direction with respect to the HWD 150 to determine a gazedirection of the user. Assuming for an example that the HWD 150 isoriented at a direction 30 degrees from a reference direction, and therelative gaze direction of the HWD 150 is −10 degrees (or 350 degrees)with respect to the HWD 150, the eye trackers 160 may determine that thegaze direction of the user is 20 degrees from the reference direction.In some embodiments, a user of the HWD 150 can configure the HWD 150(e.g., via user settings) to enable or disable the eye trackers 160. Insome embodiments, a user of the HWD 150 is prompted to enable or disablethe eye trackers 160.

In some embodiments, the hand tracker 162 includes an electroniccomponent or a combination of an electronic component and a softwarecomponent that tracks a hand of the user. In some embodiments, the handtracker 162 includes or is coupled to an imaging sensor (e.g., camera)and an image processor that can detect a shape, a location and/or anorientation of the hand. The hand tracker 162 may generate hand trackingmeasurements indicating the detected shape, location and/or orientationof the hand.

In some embodiments, the communication interface 165 includes anelectronic component or a combination of an electronic component and asoftware component that communicates with the console 110. Thecommunication interface 165 may communicate with a communicationinterface 115 of the console 110 through a communication link. Thecommunication link may be a wireless link, a wired link, or both.Examples of the wireless link can include a cellular communication link,a near field communication link, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or any communicationwireless communication link. Examples of the wired link can include aUSB, Ethernet, Firewire, HDMI, or any wired communication link. Inembodiments in which the console 110 and the head wearable display 150are implemented on a single system, the communication interface 165 maycommunicate with the console 110 through a bus connection or aconductive trace. Through the communication link, the communicationinterface 165 may transmit to the console 110 sensor measurementsindicating the determined location of the HWD 150, orientation of theHWD 150, the determined gaze direction of the user, and/or hand trackingmeasurements. Moreover, through the communication link, thecommunication interface 165 may receive from the console 110 sensormeasurements indicating or corresponding to an image to be rendered.

Using the communication interface, the console 110 (or HWD 150) maycoordinate operations on link 101 to reduce collisions or interferences.For example, the console 110 may coordinate communication between theconsole 110 and the HWD 150. In some implementations, the console 110may transmit a beacon frame periodically to announce/advertise apresence of a wireless link between the console 110 and the HWD 150 (orbetween two HWDs). In an implementation, the HWD 150 may monitor for orreceive the beacon frame from the console 110, and can schedulecommunication with the HWD 150 (e.g., using the information in thebeacon frame, such as an offset value) to avoid collision orinterference with communication between the console 110 and/or HWD 150and other devices.

The console 110 and HWD 150 may communicate using link 101 (e.g.,intralink). Data (e.g., a traffic stream) may flow in a direction onlink 101. For example, the console 110 may communicate using a downlink(DL) communication to the HWD 150 and the HWD 150 may communicate usingan uplink (UL) communication to the console 110.

In some embodiments, the image renderer 170 includes an electroniccomponent or a combination of an electronic component and a softwarecomponent that generates one or more images for display, for example,according to a change in view of the space of the artificial reality. Insome embodiments, the image renderer 170 is implemented as a processor(or a graphical processing unit (GPU)) that executes instructions toperform various functions described herein. The image renderer 170 mayreceive, through the communication interface 165, data describing animage to be rendered, and render the image through the electronicdisplay 175. In some embodiments, the data from the console 110 may beencoded, and the image renderer 170 may decode the data to generate andrender the image. In one aspect, the image renderer 170 receives theencoded image from the console 110, and decodes the encoded image, suchthat a communication bandwidth between the console 110 and the HWD 150can be reduced.

In some embodiments, the image renderer 170 receives, from the console,110 additional data including object information indicating virtualobjects in the artificial reality space and depth information indicatingdepth (or distances from the HWD 150) of the virtual objects.Accordingly, the image renderer 170 may receive from the console 110object information and/or depth information. The image renderer 170 mayalso receive updated sensor measurements from the sensors 155. Theprocess of detecting, by the HWD 150, the location and the orientationof the HWD 150 and/or the gaze direction of the user wearing the HWD150, and generating and transmitting, by the console 110, a highresolution image (e.g., 1920 by 1080 pixels, or 2048 by 1152 pixels)corresponding to the detected location and the gaze direction to the HWD150 may be computationally exhaustive and may not be performed within aframe time (e.g., less than 11 ms or 8 ms).

In some implementations, the image renderer 170 may perform shading,reprojection, and/or blending to update the image of the artificialreality to correspond to the updated location and/or orientation of theHWD 150. Assuming that a user rotated their head after the initialsensor measurements, rather than recreating the entire image responsiveto the updated sensor measurements, the image renderer 170 may generatea small portion (e.g., 10%) of an image corresponding to an updated viewwithin the artificial reality according to the updated sensormeasurements, and append the portion to the image in the image data fromthe console 110 through reprojection. The image renderer 170 may performshading and/or blending on the appended edges. Hence, without recreatingthe image of the artificial reality according to the updated sensormeasurements, the image renderer 170 can generate the image of theartificial reality.

In other implementations, the image renderer 170 generates one or moreimages through a shading process and a reprojection process when animage from the console 110 is not received within the frame time. Forexample, the shading process and the reprojection process may beperformed adaptively, according to a change in view of the space of theartificial reality.

In some embodiments, the electronic display 175 is an electroniccomponent that displays an image. The electronic display 175 may, forexample, be a liquid crystal display or an organic light emitting diodedisplay. The electronic display 175 may be a transparent display thatallows the user to see through. In some embodiments, when the HWD 150 isworn by a user, the electronic display 175 is located proximate (e.g.,less than 3 inches) to the user's eyes. In one aspect, the electronicdisplay 175 emits or projects light towards the user's eyes according toimage generated by the image renderer 170.

In some embodiments, the lens 180 is a mechanical component that altersreceived light from the electronic display 175. The lens 180 may magnifythe light from the electronic display 175, and correct for optical errorassociated with the light. The lens 180 may be a Fresnel lens, a convexlens, a concave lens, a filter, or any suitable optical component thatalters the light from the electronic display 175. Through the lens 180,light from the electronic display 175 can reach the pupils, such thatthe user can see the image displayed by the electronic display 175,despite the close proximity of the electronic display 175 to the eyes.

In some embodiments, the compensator 185 includes an electroniccomponent or a combination of an electronic component and a softwarecomponent that performs compensation to compensate for any distortionsor aberrations. In one aspect, the lens 180 introduces opticalaberrations such as a chromatic aberration, a pin-cushion distortion,barrel distortion, etc. The compensator 185 may determine a compensation(e.g., predistortion) to apply to the image to be rendered from theimage renderer 170 to compensate for the distortions caused by the lens180, and apply the determined compensation to the image from the imagerenderer 170. The compensator 185 may provide the predistorted image tothe electronic display 175.

In some embodiments, the console 110 is an electronic component or acombination of an electronic component and a software component thatprovides content to be rendered to the HWD 150. In one aspect, theconsole 110 includes a communication interface 115 and a contentprovider 130. These components may operate together to determine a view(e.g., a field of view (FOV) of the user) of the artificial realitycorresponding to the location of the HWD 150 and/or the gaze directionof the user of the HWD 150, and can generate an image of the artificialreality corresponding to the determined view. In other embodiments, theconsole 110 includes more, fewer, or different components than shown inFIG. 1 . In some embodiments, the console 110 is integrated as part ofthe HWD 150. In some embodiments, the communication interface 115 is anelectronic component or a combination of an electronic component and asoftware component that communicates with the HWD 150. The communicationinterface 115 may be a counterpart component to the communicationinterface 165 to communicate with a communication interface 115 of theconsole 110 through a communication link (e.g., USB cable, a wirelesslink). Through the communication link, the communication interface 115may receive from the HWD 150 sensor measurements indicating thedetermined location and/or orientation of the HWD 150, the determinedgaze direction of the user, and/or hand tracking measurements. Moreover,through the communication link, the communication interface 115 maytransmit to the HWD 150 data describing an image to be rendered.

The content provider 130 can include or correspond to a component thatgenerates content to be rendered according to the location and/ororientation of the HWD 150, the gaze direction of the user and/or handtracking measurements. In one aspect, the content provider 130determines a view of the artificial reality according to the locationand orientation of the HWD 150 and/or the gaze direction of the user ofthe HWD 150. For example, the content provider 130 maps the location ofthe HWD 150 in a physical space to a location within an artificialreality space, and determines a view of the artificial reality spacealong a direction corresponding to an orientation of the HWD 150 and/orthe gaze direction of the user from the mapped location in theartificial reality space.

The content provider 130 may generate image data describing an image ofthe determined view of the artificial reality space, and transmit theimage data to the HWD 150 through the communication interface 115. Thecontent provider may also generate a hand model (or other virtualobject) corresponding to a hand of the user according to the handtracking measurement, and generate hand model data indicating a shape, alocation, and an orientation of the hand model in the artificial realityspace.

In some embodiments, the content provider 130 generates metadataincluding motion vector information, depth information, edgeinformation, object information, etc., associated with the image, andtransmits the metadata with the image data to the HWD 150 through thecommunication interface 115. The content provider 130 may encode and/orencode the data describing the image, and can transmit the encodedand/or encoded data to the HWD 150. In some embodiments, the contentprovider 130 generates and provides the image to the HWD 150periodically (e.g., every one second).

The scheduler 190A of the HWD 150 and the scheduler 190B of the console(hereinafter referred to as “scheduler 190”) may be used to facilitatecommunication between the HWD 150 and the console 110. For example, theHWD 150 and/or console 110 may access link 101 based on a scheduledagreement. The scheduler 190 may communicate traffic such that the HWD150 and console 110 (or console 110 and other device, or HWD 150 andother device), may agree on a distribution of traffic/slots of link 101.The scheduler 190 may also facilitate agreements involving thedistribution of carriers and sub-carriers of link 101. The scheduler 190may be used to assign (identify, or classify) traffic based on accesscategories, TIDs, source/destinations, the direction of traffic (e.g.,UL/DL), and/or a predicted traffic pattern (e.g., the expected trafficoriginating from the device and/or application, traffic expected by thedevice and/or application, and/or expected peer-to-peer traffic).

Upon agreeing to latency sensitive traffic using the scheduler 190, theconsole 110 and/or HWD 150 may communicate the latency sensitive trafficusing a latency sensitive slot (e.g., a prioritized slot) to transmit aportion of the traffic identified as being latency sensitive. Theconsole 110 and/or HWD 150 may also access any of the regular (ornon-prioritized) slots for portions of the traffic identified as beingregular (non latency sensitive) traffic.

In addition, the scheduler 190 may schedule (e.g., assign, or allocate)particular slot locations as latency sensitive slots. In an example, thescheduler 190 may schedule latency sensitive slots in a cyclic patternamong slots for regular traffic. Additionally or alternatively,scheduler 190 may schedule multiple contiguous slots (e.g., a serviceperiod of latency sensitive slots) as latency sensitive slots.

In an example, if the console 110 and/or HWD is configured formulti-link operation (MLO), the scheduler 190 may schedule one set ofTIDs to a subset of links, and schedule a different set of TIDs to adifferent subset of links. Additionally or alternatively, the scheduler190 may dedicate a subset of links for UL triggering/traffic anddedicate a different subset of links for other traffic (e.g., DLtriggering/traffic).

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a HWD 150, in accordance with an exampleembodiment. In some embodiments, the HWD 150 includes a front rigid body205 and a band 210. The front rigid body 205 includes the electronicdisplay 175 (not shown in FIG. 2 ), the lens 180 (not shown in FIG. 2 ),the sensors 155, the eye trackers 160A, 160B, the communicationinterface 165, and the image renderer 170. In the embodiment shown byFIG. 2 , the sensors 155 are located within the front rigid body 205,and may not visible to the user. In other embodiments, the HWD 150 has adifferent configuration than shown in FIG. 2 . For example, the imagerenderer 170, the eye trackers 160A, 160B, and/or the sensors 155 may bein different locations than shown in FIG. 2 .

Various operations described herein can be implemented on computersystems. FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a representative computingsystem 314 usable to implement the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the console 110, the HWD 150 or both of FIG. 1 areimplemented by the computing system 314. Computing system 314 can beimplemented, for example, as a consumer device such as a smartphone,other mobile phone, tablet computer, wearable computing device (e.g.,smart watch, eyeglasses, head wearable display), desktop computer,laptop computer, or implemented with distributed computing devices. Thecomputing system 314 can be implemented to provide VR, AR, MRexperience. In some embodiments, the computing system 314 can includeconventional computer components such as processors 316, storage device318, network interface 320, user input device 322, and user outputdevice 324.

Network interface 320 can provide a connection to a wide area network(e.g., the Internet) to which WAN interface of a remote server system isalso connected. Network interface 320 can include a wired interface(e.g., Ethernet) and/or a wireless interface implementing various RFdata communication standards such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cellular datanetwork standards (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, 60 GHz, LTE, etc.).

The network interface 320 may include a transceiver to allow thecomputing system 314 to transmit and receive data from a remote device(e.g., an AP, a STA) using a transmitter and receiver. The transceivermay be configured to support transmission/reception supporting industrystandards that enables bi-directional communication. An antenna may beattached to transceiver housing and electrically coupled to thetransceiver. Additionally or alternatively, a multi-antenna array may beelectrically coupled to the transceiver such that a plurality of beamspointing in distinct directions may facilitate in transmitting and/orreceiving data.

A transmitter may be configured to wirelessly transmit frames, slots, orsymbols generated by the processor unit 316. Similarly, a receiver maybe configured to receive frames, slots or symbols and the processor unit316 may be configured to process the frames. For example, the processorunit 316 can be configured to determine a type of frame and to processthe frame and/or fields of the frame accordingly.

User input device 322 can include any device (or devices) via which auser can provide signals to computing system 314; computing system 314can interpret the signals as indicative of particular user requests orinformation. User input device 322 can include any or all of a keyboard,touch pad, touch screen, mouse or other pointing device, scroll wheel,click wheel, dial, button, switch, keypad, microphone, sensors (e.g., amotion sensor, an eye tracking sensor, etc.), and so on.

User output device 324 can include any device via which computing system314 can provide information to a user. For example, user output device324 can include a display to display images generated by or delivered tocomputing system 314. The display can incorporate various imagegeneration technologies, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD),light-emitting diode (LED) including organic light-emitting diodes(OLED), projection system, cathode ray tube (CRT), or the like, togetherwith supporting electronics (e.g., digital-to-analog oranalog-to-digital converters, signal processors, or the like). A devicesuch as a touchscreen that function as both input and output device canbe used. Output devices 324 can be provided in addition to or instead ofa display. Examples include indicator lights, speakers, tactile“display” devices, printers, and so on.

FIGS. 1-2 illustrate devices that communicate traffic streams some ofwhich may be latency sensitive (e.g., those carrying AR/VRinformation/content). FIG. 4 is an interaction/flow diagram showing aprocess 400 of communicating slot assignment(s) of traffic stream(s)between two devices, according to an example implementation of thepresent disclosure. In some embodiments, the process 400 is performed bya first device 401 and a second device 402. The first device 401 andsecond device 402 may be some combination of an AP (e.g., console 110,router), a soft AP, and/or a station (e.g., HWD 150). In someembodiments, the process 400 is performed by other entities. In someembodiments, the process 400 includes more, fewer, or different stepsthan shown in FIG. 4 .

In more details of operation 403, the first device 401 may generate arequest message with one or more request values. A value in the requestmessage (e.g., a request value in the request message) may be a valuecorresponding to a traffic stream and/or the traffic stream's TID. In atleast one field of the request message, the device (e.g., first device401 and/or second device 402) may configure/include a latency marker(L-marker) with a value (e.g., a request value) to identify one or moretraffic streams. In other embodiments, the request message may include adifferent marker having a request value to identify one or more trafficstreams using a different characteristic/attribute of the trafficstream. For example, other types of data may be prioritized using othermarkers.

The L-marker may be one bit in length/size, in some embodiments. Forexample, the L-marker (e.g., a request value of the L-marker) mayindicate whether a TID is associated with latency sensitive traffic. Asdiscussed herein, the L-marker may be used to indicate and distinguishlatency sensitive traffic (e.g., prioritized traffic) over regulartraffic (e.g., non-prioritized traffic, regular traffic). If theL-marker is set to ‘1’ (or ‘0’), the corresponding TID may be associatedwith latency sensitive traffic, and if the L-marker is set to ‘0’ (or‘1’) the TID may be associated with regular traffic.

One or more values, (e.g., a request value) may indicate whether atraffic stream is latency sensitive. In some implementations, values(e.g., a request value) of the L-marker may be one bit. In otherimplementations, values (e.g., request values) of the L-marker may bemultiple bits.

If the L-marker includes multiple bits (e.g., a bitmap of k bits), thenin some implementations, each of the k bits of the bitmap may indicatewhether a corresponding traffic stream communicated (e.g., in UL or DL)or to be communicated between the first device 401 and the second device402, is latency sensitive. The L-marker may also include other bits inthe bitmap (e.g., management bit(s)). In the event the L-marker ismultiple bits, the L-marker may indicate (or distinguish between)various types of traffic using various characteristics (or attributes)of the traffic. For example, an L-marker/value of the L-marker may insome embodiments distinguish at least four types of traffic (e.g.,prioritized traffic, preferred traffic, regular traffic).

The L-marker may also indicate a specific direction of traffic betweenthe first device 401 and the second device 402. For example, theL-marker may indicate whether a traffic stream should be communicated inUL and/or DL traffic.

In some implementations, the L-marker may contain/include a first value(e.g., a first request value) indicating whether a first traffic streamin a first direction between the first device 401 and the second device402 is latency sensitive. A second value of the L-marker (e.g., a secondrequest value) may indicate whether a second traffic stream in a seconddirection between the first device 401 and the second device 402 islatency sensitive. For instance a particular stream of UL traffic may belatency sensitive and a particular stream of DL traffic may be latencysensitive.

The L-marker may indicate/include a first bitmap (e.g., 2 bytes or 16bits) of first values (e.g., request values) that indicates a directionof traffic (e.g., UL) between the first device 401 and the second device402, and whether corresponding traffic streams are latency sensitive.The first bitmap may include one management bit and/or one defined bitto indicate whether all identified traffic streams are latencysensitive. The L-marker may also indicate/include a second bitmap (e.g.,2 bytes or 16 bits) of second values (e.g., second request values) thatindicates a direction of traffic (e.g., DL) between the second device402 and the first device 401, and whether other corresponding trafficstreams are latency sensitive. The second bitmap may include onemanagement bit and/or one defined bit to indicate whether all identifiedtraffic streams are latency sensitive. In some implementations, thefirst bitmap and second bitmap are contiguous (e.g., being portions of alarger bitmap). In some implementations, the contiguous nature of thebitmaps may indicate a first direction (e.g., UL) associated with thefirst bitmap, and a second direction (e.g., DL) associated with thesecond bitmap.

In more details of operation 420, the first device 401 may transmit therequest message to the second device 402. For example, the first device401 may transmit the request message (e.g., an add block acknowledgement(ADDBA) request frame) as part of a handshake process for establishmentof a block acknowledgement (BA) session. A bit may beappended/added/repurposed in a field (or information element) toindicate whether the traffic corresponding to the BA is latencysensitive. For example, a sub-field may indicate whether a TID to beaggregated in a BA session is a latency sensitive TID. The L-marker maycomprise/set only one bit, because the ADDBA request frame (or responseframe) is configured/established for a TID specified in the BA parameterset.

In some implementations, the L-marker may be configured in (or as an)information element (IE). For example, the IE may be a latency sensitivetraffic identifier/description/configuration used in (appended to,repurposed for, inserted in) other protocols, including the BAestablishment session as discussed herein. The IE may beconfigured/defined with header information such as element IDinformation (which may be 1 byte or other number of bytes/bits long), IElength (which may be 1 byte or other number of bytes/bits long), and/orElement ID Extension (which may be 1 byte or other number of bytes/bitslong). The IE may also include the L-marker bitmap, as described herein.The L-marker bitmap may be 2 bytes (or other number of bytes/bits long).The IE may be represented for example, by:

|Element ID (1 byte)|Length (1 byte)|Element ID Extension (1byte)|L-Marker bitmap (2 bytes)|As example, the first device 401 may transmit the request message (withthe IE) as any type of handshake action frame. For instance, anegotiation process (such as process 400) may be executed using the IEin one or more messages that are communicated within the negotiationprocess.

Additionally or alternatively, the first device 401 may transmit anL-marker as/in a field in a request message. For example, the requestmessage can be a slot request frame as part of a slot request handshake(or in other protocols/process that exchange frames for negotiation orto achieve agreements). That is, one or more bits in a field of therequest handshake frame may be appended/incorporated/configured/modifiedsuch that the request handshake frame conveys latency sensitivityinformation. In an example, the L-marker IE/field (or bitmap) may beappended/incorporated/configured in the slot request handshake frame.

In more details of operation 404, the second device 402 may receive therequest message transmitted by the first device 401. The second device402 may extract information from the request message such as L-markerinformation. In operation 406, the second device 402 may generate aresponse message in response to the received information extracted fromthe request message (e.g., including the L-marker information). Forexample, the response message may comprise an ADDBA response frame (sentin response to the ADDBA request frame), as part of the handshakeprocess for establishment of a BA session. In another example, theresponse message may comprise a handshake action frame (e.g., a slotresponse handshake frame, in response to the slot handshake requestframe, for slot assignment).

In some embodiments, the response message may be similar to the requestmessage (e.g., structurally, operationally). In other embodiments, theresponse message may be different from the request message (e.g.,structurally, operationally). In at least one field/IE of the responsemessage, the device (e.g., first device 401 and/or second device 402)may configure a response latency marker (response L-marker) with a value(e.g., a response value) to identify/indicate/classify one or moretraffic streams (e.g., as being latency sensitive or not). In otherembodiments, the response message may include a different/separatemarker using a response value to identify one or more traffic streamsusing a different characteristic/attribute of the traffic stream.

The second device 402 may manage (e.g., use for scheduling trafficstreams) the information extracted from the response L-marker in theresponse message. In some embodiments, if the second device 402 is anAP, the second device 402 may schedule downlink traffic (or peer-to-peertraffic) to be transmitted from the first device 401 (e.g., a STA). Insome embodiments, if the second device 402 is a STA, the second device402 may schedule uplink traffic (or peer-to-peer traffic) to betransmitted from the first device 401 (e.g., an AP, a different STA).

In some embodiments, the response L-marker generated for the responsemessage may be identical or similar to the L-marker generated in therequest message (e.g., structurally, operationally, such as using adefined IE, field and/or bitmap format). The response values may beresponses corresponding to (e.g., matching) the request values in theL-marker generated in the request message. For instance, a request valuemay request a particular TID stream be identified as latency sensitivetraffic, and a response value may accept the request by mirroring therequest values of the request message. If the response values of theresponse value L-marker do not mirror or match the request values of theL-marker, then the requested information may be rejected (partiallyrejected, for one or more of the identified traffic streams, or whollyrejected for all identified traffic streams). For example, a particulartraffic stream may not be denoted as a latency sensitive traffic streamfor slot scheduling purposes, as indicated in the corresponding responsevalue of the response L-marker. The traffic stream not denoted as alatency sensitive traffic stream may not receive (or be assigned to)prioritized slot(s) for communication.

In other embodiments, the response L-marker generated for the responsemessage may be different from the L-marker generated in the requestmessage (e.g., structurally, operationally, for example using adifferent format, IE or field). For example, a response L-marker mayaccept the request values indicated in the L-marker by communicating(with a response value, for instance) a one-bit response (instead of amulti-bit bitmap). For example, the response L-marker may be set to ‘1’(or ‘0’) to accept the information associated with the L-marker of therequest message.

In more details of operation 422, the second device 402 may transmit theresponse message to the first device 401. For example, the second device402 may transmit the response message as part of a slot request-responsehandshake process.

In more details of operation 407, the first device 401 may receive, fromthe second device 402, the response message. The response message may bereceived in response (in part) to the request message communicated tothe second device 402. The first device 401 may extract information fromthe response message, including a response L-marker (or L-markers) andany response values, and determine whether the L-marker andcorresponding request values of the request message were (partially orcompletely) approved, rejected, and/or modified.

For example, the first device 401 may determine that the second device402 approved the L-marker in the request message if the responseL-marker in the response message is the same as the L-marker in therequest message. In a different example, the first device 401 maydetermine that the second device 402 modified (or rejected) the L-marker(or L-markers) in the request message if the response L-marker (orL-markers) in the response message is at least partially different. Ifthe second device 402 modified the L-marker, in some embodiments, thefirst device 402 may approve/accept/re-request (e.g., automatically orby default) the newly modified L-marker designations. For example, thefirst device 401 may transmit a mirrored/matching L-marker (orL-markers) back to the second device 402 (not shown). In someembodiments, the response message from the second device can include (inaddition to a response L-Marker, or in place of a response L-marker) anindication (e.g., in a status field) for example indicating success(e.g., the second device accepted/approved the L-marker), a rejectionwith suggested change(s) to the L-marker information, or a rejection(without suggested changes). The first device, responsive to receivingthe indication and/or the response message, can decide/determine whetherto send a further request message (e.g., a re-request, with or withoutthe suggested change(s). In some embodiments, the first device maydecide to give up or drop its request responsive to the indication(e.g., if the second device indicates a rejection in the responsemessage). For example, the first device 401 may give up its request toseek/identify particular latency sensitive traffic stream(s), in someimplementations, if the second device provides a partial or completerejection.

Referring back to operation 407, the first device 401 may initiate aprocess according to the response message. For example, the first device401 may schedule the traffic streams identified in the response messageas latency sensitive traffic streams (e.g., approved/accepted by thesecond device 402 in the request message as latency sensitive trafficstreams), to time slots that are prioritized, and may communicate thesetraffic streams as prioritized traffic streams instead of a regulartraffic stream. Communicating the traffic streams as prioritized (orlatency sensitive) traffic streams may include transmitting the trafficstreams using prioritized slot(s), prioritized time duration(s),prioritized symbols, prioritized carrier(s), and the like. That is, thefirst device 401 may differentiate the prioritized traffic stream from aregular traffic stream.

FIG. 5 is an example scheduling diagram based on information extractedfrom an L-marker (e.g., a response L-marker from an access point),according to an example implementation of the present disclosure. Insome embodiments, devices (such as STA 501A, 501B and 501C, referred toherein as “STAs 501”) may have latency sensitive traffic to communicatewith the access point. Each STA 501 may have different traffic streams,and some of these is/are to be prioritized to meet latency requirements.Each traffic stream to be communicated by each of the STAs 501 mayinclude latency sensitive traffic or non-latency sensitive traffic(e.g., regular traffic, non-prioritized traffic).

An L-marker may correspond to each stream of traffic. For example, asshown in STA 501A, a stream of traffic may correspond to TID 3 and beidentified as latency sensitive traffic (e.g., the L-marker is set to‘1’). Another stream of traffic may correspond to TID 2 and beidentified as regular traffic (e.g., the L-marker is set to ‘0’).Another stream of traffic may correspond to TID 1 and be identified aslatency sensitive traffic (e.g., the L-marker is set to ‘1’). Anotherstream of traffic may correspond to TID 0 and be identified as regulartraffic (e.g., the L-marker is set to ‘0’).

As shown, each STA 501 may have one or more traffic streams to transmit.The traffic (traffic streams) to be transmitted may be queued by the STA501. For example, STA 501A may queue and seek to transmit traffic 505A,STA 501B may queue and seek to transmit traffic 505B, and STA 501C mayqueue and seek to transmit 505C. Each of the STAs 501 may communicatethe traffic they seek to transmit according to traffic streaminformation (e.g., TIDs) and L-markers (e.g., conveyed by the accesspoint). For example, the STAs 501 may transmit request messages (asdescribed in operation 403 and 420 in FIG. 4 ) containing L-markers to ascheduler 503 (e.g., schedule 190A in FIG. 1 ). The scheduler 503 (e.g.,of an AP, a soft AP, a console 110) may receive the request message andmay agree to the traffic designations requested by STAs 501.Accordingly, slots of a service period 507 may be scheduled withprioritized traffic (e.g., latency sensitive traffic) andnon-prioritized traffic (e.g., regular traffic).

Some implementations include electronic components, such asmicroprocessors, storage and memory that store computer programinstructions in a computer readable storage medium (e.g., non-transitorycomputer readable medium). Many of the features described in thisspecification can be implemented as processes that are specified as aset of program instructions encoded on a computer readable storagemedium. When these program instructions are executed by one or moreprocessors, they cause the processors to perform various operationindicated in the program instructions. Examples of program instructionsor computer code include machine code, such as is produced by acompiler, and files including higher-level code that are executed by acomputer, an electronic component, or a microprocessor using aninterpreter. Through suitable programming, processor 316 can providevarious functionality for computing system 314, including any of thefunctionality described herein as being performed by a server or client,or other functionality associated with message management services.

It will be appreciated that computing system 314 is illustrative andthat variations and modifications are possible. Computer systems used inconnection with the present disclosure can have other capabilities notspecifically described here. Further, while computing system 314 isdescribed with reference to particular blocks, it is to be understoodthat these blocks are defined for convenience of description and are notintended to imply a particular physical arrangement of component parts.For instance, different blocks can be located in the same facility, inthe same server rack, or on the same motherboard. Further, the blocksneed not correspond to physically distinct components. Blocks can beconfigured to perform various operations, e.g., by programming aprocessor or providing appropriate control circuitry, and various blocksmight or might not be reconfigurable depending on how the initialconfiguration is obtained. Implementations of the present disclosure canbe realized in a variety of apparatus including electronic devicesimplemented using any combination of circuitry and software.

Having now described some illustrative implementations, it is apparentthat the foregoing is illustrative and not limiting, having beenpresented by way of example. In particular, although many of theexamples presented herein involve specific combinations of method actsor system elements, those acts and those elements can be combined inother ways to accomplish the same objectives. Acts, elements andfeatures discussed in connection with one implementation are notintended to be excluded from a similar role in other implementations orimplementations.

The hardware and data processing components used to implement thevarious processes, operations, illustrative logics, logical blocks,modules and circuits described in connection with the embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purposesingle- or multi-chip processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A generalpurpose processor may be a microprocessor, or, any conventionalprocessor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processoralso may be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as acombination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration. In some embodiments, particularprocesses and methods may be performed by circuitry that is specific toa given function. The memory (e.g., memory, memory unit, storage device,etc.) may include one or more devices (e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash memory,hard disk storage, etc.) for storing data and/or computer code forcompleting or facilitating the various processes, layers and modulesdescribed in the present disclosure. The memory may be or includevolatile memory or non-volatile memory, and may include databasecomponents, object code components, script components, or any other typeof information structure for supporting the various activities andinformation structures described in the present disclosure. According toan exemplary embodiment, the memory is communicably connected to theprocessor via a processing circuit and includes computer code forexecuting (e.g., by the processing circuit and/or the processor) the oneor more processes described herein.

The present disclosure contemplates methods, systems and programproducts on any machine-readable media for accomplishing variousoperations. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implementedusing existing computer processors, or by a special purpose computerprocessor for an appropriate system, incorporated for this or anotherpurpose, or by a hardwired system. Embodiments within the scope of thepresent disclosure include program products comprising machine-readablemedia for carrying or having machine-executable instructions or datastructures stored thereon. Such machine-readable media can be anyavailable media that can be accessed by a general purpose or specialpurpose computer or other machine with a processor. By way of example,such machine-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, orother optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or storedesired program code in the form of machine-executable instructions ordata structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose orspecial purpose computer or other machine with a processor. Combinationsof the above are also included within the scope of machine-readablemedia. Machine-executable instructions include, for example,instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or special purpose processing machines to perform acertain function or group of functions.

The phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including” “comprising” “having” “containing” “involving”“characterized by” “characterized in that” and variations thereofherein, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter, equivalentsthereof, and additional items, as well as alternate implementationsconsisting of the items listed thereafter exclusively. In oneimplementation, the systems and methods described herein consist of one,each combination of more than one, or all of the described elements,acts, or components.

Any references to implementations or elements or acts of the systems andmethods herein referred to in the singular can also embraceimplementations including a plurality of these elements, and anyreferences in plural to any implementation or element or act herein canalso embrace implementations including only a single element. Referencesin the singular or plural form are not intended to limit the presentlydisclosed systems or methods, their components, acts, or elements tosingle or plural configurations. References to any act or element beingbased on any information, act or element can include implementationswhere the act or element is based at least in part on any information,act, or element.

Any implementation disclosed herein can be combined with any otherimplementation or embodiment, and references to “an implementation,”“some implementations,” “one implementation” or the like are notnecessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the implementation can be included in at least one implementationor embodiment. Such terms as used herein are not necessarily allreferring to the same implementation. Any implementation can be combinedwith any other implementation, inclusively or exclusively, in any mannerconsistent with the aspects and implementations disclosed herein.

Where technical features in the drawings, detailed description or anyclaim are followed by reference signs, the reference signs have beenincluded to increase the intelligibility of the drawings, detaileddescription, and claims. Accordingly, neither the reference signs northeir absence have any limiting effect on the scope of any claimelements.

Systems and methods described herein may be embodied in other specificforms without departing from the characteristics thereof. References to“approximately,” “about” “substantially” or other terms of degreeinclude variations of +/−10% from the given measurement, unit, or rangeunless explicitly indicated otherwise. Coupled elements can beelectrically, mechanically, or physically coupled with one anotherdirectly or with intervening elements. Scope of the systems and methodsdescribed herein is thus indicated by the appended claims, rather thanthe foregoing description, and changes that come within the meaning andrange of equivalency of the claims are embraced therein.

The term “coupled” and variations thereof includes the joining of twomembers directly or indirectly to one another. Such joining may bestationary (e.g., permanent or fixed) or moveable (e.g., removable orreleasable). Such joining may be achieved with the two members coupleddirectly with or to each other, with the two members coupled with eachother using a separate intervening member and any additionalintermediate members coupled with one another, or with the two memberscoupled with each other using an intervening member that is integrallyformed as a single unitary body with one of the two members. If“coupled” or variations thereof are modified by an additional term(e.g., directly coupled), the generic definition of “coupled” providedabove is modified by the plain language meaning of the additional term(e.g., “directly coupled” means the joining of two members without anyseparate intervening member), resulting in a narrower definition thanthe generic definition of “coupled” provided above. Such coupling may bemechanical, electrical, or fluidic.

References to “or” can be construed as inclusive so that any termsdescribed using “or” can indicate any of a single, more than one, andall of the described terms. A reference to “at least one of ‘A’ and ‘B’”can include only ‘A’, only ‘B’, as well as both ‘A’ and ‘B’. Suchreferences used in conjunction with “comprising” or other openterminology can include additional items.

Modifications of described elements and acts such as variations insizes, dimensions, structures, shapes and proportions of the variouselements, values of parameters, mounting arrangements, use of materials,colors, orientations can occur without materially departing from theteachings and advantages of the subject matter disclosed herein. Forexample, elements shown as integrally formed can be constructed ofmultiple parts or elements, the position of elements can be reversed orotherwise varied, and the nature or number of discrete elements orpositions can be altered or varied. Other substitutions, modifications,changes and omissions can also be made in the design, operatingconditions and arrangement of the disclosed elements and operationswithout departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

References herein to the positions of elements (e.g., “top,” “bottom,”“above,” “below”) are merely used to describe the orientation of variouselements in the FIGURES. The orientation of various elements may differaccording to other exemplary embodiments, and that such variations areintended to be encompassed by the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: sending, by a first wirelesscommunication device to a second wireless communication device, arequest message comprising a traffic stream identifier (TID) and a firstvalue, the first value indicating that a traffic stream between thefirst wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device and corresponding to the TID is latency sensitive;and receiving, by the first wireless communication device from thesecond wireless communication device responsive to the request message,a response message comprising a second value indicating whether thecorresponding traffic stream between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device is latencysensitive; comparing the second value and the first value; determining,by the first wireless communication device according to a result of thecomparing, that the request message has been accepted; andcommunicating, by the first wireless communication device with thesecond wireless communication device responsive to the determining, thecorresponding traffic stream as a prioritized traffic stream instead ofa regular traffic stream.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requestmessage comprises a bit having the first value.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein determining that the request message has been acceptedcomprises: determining that the first value is the same as the secondvalue.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding trafficstream has a specific direction between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device, and the first valueis configured for the specific direction.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the first value indicates whether the corresponding trafficstream between the first wireless communication device and the secondwireless communication device in a first direction is latency sensitive,and the request message comprises a third value indicating a trafficstream between the first wireless communication device and the secondwireless communication device in a second direction is latencysensitive.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the request message is toestablish a block acknowledgement (BA) session.
 7. The method of claim1, wherein the request message comprises a plurality of request valueseach indicating whether a corresponding traffic stream between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice is latency sensitive.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein theresponse message comprises a plurality of response values eachresponsive to a corresponding one of the plurality of request values. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein the request message comprises a bitmap,each bit of the bitmap indicating whether a corresponding traffic streambetween the first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device is latency sensitive.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the request message comprises a first bitmap and a secondbitmap, the first bitmap indicates whether each of a first plurality oftraffic streams with a first direction between the first wirelesscommunication device and the second wireless communication device islatency sensitive, and the second bitmap indicates whether each of asecond plurality of traffic streams with a second direction between thefirst wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device is latency sensitive.
 11. A first wirelesscommunication device, comprising: at least one processor configured to:send, via a transceiver to a second wireless communication device, arequest message comprising a traffic stream identifier (TID) and a firstvalue, the first value indicating that a traffic stream between thefirst wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device and corresponding to the TID is latency sensitive;and receive, via the transceiver from the second wireless communicationdevice responsive to the request message, a response message comprisinga second value indicating whether the corresponding traffic streambetween the first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device is latency sensitive; compare the second value andthe first value; determine, according to a result of the comparing, thatthe request message has been accepted; and communicate, via thetransceiver with the second wireless communication device responsive tothe determining, the corresponding traffic stream as a prioritizedtraffic stream instead of a regular traffic stream.
 12. The firstwireless communication device of claim 11, wherein the request messagecomprises a bit having the first value.
 13. The first wirelesscommunication device of claim 11, wherein to determine that the requestmessage has been accepted, the at least one processor is configured todetermine that the first value is the same as the second value.
 14. Thefirst wireless communication device of claim 11, wherein thecorresponding traffic stream has a specific direction between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice, and the first value is configured for the specific direction.15. The first wireless communication device of claim 11, wherein thefirst value indicates whether the corresponding traffic stream betweenthe first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device in a first direction is latency sensitive, and therequest message comprises a third value indicating a traffic streambetween the first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device in a second direction is latency sensitive.
 16. Thefirst wireless communication device of claim 11, wherein the requestmessage is to establish a block acknowledgement (BA) session.
 17. Thefirst wireless communication device of claim 11, wherein the requestmessage comprises a plurality of request values each indicating whethera corresponding traffic stream between the first wireless communicationdevice and the second wireless communication device is latencysensitive.
 18. The first wireless communication device of claim 17,wherein the response message comprises a plurality of response valueseach responsive to a corresponding one of the plurality of requestvalues.
 19. The first wireless communication device of claim 11, whereinthe request message comprises a bitmap, each bit of the bitmapindicating whether a corresponding traffic stream between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice is latency sensitive.
 20. The first wireless communication deviceof claim 11, wherein the request message comprises a first bitmap and asecond bitmap, the first bitmap indicates whether each of a firstplurality of traffic streams with a first direction between the firstwireless communication device and the second wireless communicationdevice is latency sensitive, and the second bitmap indicates whethereach of a second plurality of traffic streams with a second directionbetween the first wireless communication device and the second wirelesscommunication device is latency sensitive.